Dozens of people were killed or wounded in two suicide car bombings in the southern Yemeni port city of Aden on Saturday, witnesses and local medics said.

They said the attacks appeared to have targeted a camp used by anti-terrorism forces in south-western Aden.

Officials at the city's main Jumhouriya hospital said the bodies of five victims, most of them soldiers, had arrived at the facility, along with a number of injured people including civilians, but gave no precise figures.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack in an area known as Gold Mohr in Aden's Tawahi district, where the force of the blast damaged civilian cars parked outside the camp and showered the street with debris.

It was the first attack of its kind since gunbattles erupted between southern separatists and the government of President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi last month over control of the city.

Residents described two large explosions in the area, where a cloud of grey smoke rose over the area, while ambulances raced to evacuate the wounded.

Residents initially said one of the bombers targeted an office of the separatist Southern Transitional Council (STC), but a member of the group said there was no attack on the building.

Aden has been under the control of the STC since late January when the group captured it after clashes with forces loyal to the internationally recognised President Hadi.

The STC, formed last year to push for the revival of the former state of South Yemen, is backed by the United Arab Emirates and was formerly allied with Hadi, who is supported militarily by a coalition of Arab states led by Saudi Arabia but also including the UAE.

Yemen has been racked by conflict between Shia Houthi rebels and the Saudi-backed government for nearly three years. More than 8,500 people have been killed in the fighting since 2015.